Conn-grats for Huskies

WINDSOR - Some of the numbers are down a bit, but she remained just as effective.

Despite averaging two points and two rebounds less than last season, All-American guard

Diana Taurasi
successfully defended her title as the Big East Player of the Year.

"People sometimes concentrate on stats and scoring," Taurasi said Friday night at the Big East awards banquet. "In reality it's how much better do you make your team. Do you make your team a lot better or are you just good on the team?"

Taurasi, a unanimous selection for first-team All-Big East by the league coaches, beat out
Georgetown center
Rebekkah Brunson for the award.

Brunson, also placing on the all-conference first team, led the Big East in scoring (19.1 points) and rebounding (11.8 rebounds) and was voted the Big East Defender of the Year.

Some questions were raised the past few weeks whether Taurasi would repeat as the league's best player since her scoring is down. The star is averaging 11.7 points the past 10 games. Her scoring average was at 18.4 points before that stretch.

The coaches, however, disregarded the lower scoring.

"She's passing the ball; she's rebounding the ball," Villanova coach
Harry Perretta
said about Taurasi. "I don't look at it through those eyes. I don't look at it through offensive eyes. I look at it as total play, and I don't think that she's played that poorly with the exception of maybe not shooting it as well. But to me, great players do other things, and she does other things."

Even with the lower averages, Taurasi still ranks in the top 10 in the Big East in seven categories. She is the conference's top 3-point shooter at 41.2 percent and is third in assists with a 4.93 average.

"When the coaches give you that respect, I think that's the greatest feeling," Taurasi said. "They're not looking at scoring. The stats you can take to a point, but the leadership and how you play as a team comes into account."

Taurasi is the first person to repeat as the league's player of the year since former UConn star
Rebecca Lobo
won back-to-back awards in 1994 and '95.

Taurasi defending the honor also meant the award went to a UConn player for the 13th time of the past 16 seasons.

"Having the Player of the Year for us 13 out of 16 years, what that represents to me is that really good players come to Connecticut and they get a lot better, so that makes me feel really, really good," UConn coach
Geno Auriemma
said. "There are a lot of good players that go to some schools and they don't become Player of the Year. So the fact that we've had some of the best players come to Connecticut and leave here as Player of the Year, that means we're doing something right on the coaching end of it."

Other UConn honorees at the banquet were sophomores
Barbara Turner
and
Ann Strother
earning All-Big East second- and third-team distinction, respectively. Center
Liz Sherwood
, the preseason pick for Freshman of the Year, earned a place on the All-Freshman team.

"I wasn't expecting to stand up (and get an award)," Sherwood said. "When they called my name after everyone, I was like, 'Yeah right.' ... I still actually don't believe that I got it. There were a lot of really good freshmen, so I was surprised."

While Auriemma was happy about the four earning honors, he was disappointed center
Jessica Moore
failed to get any all-conference recognition. The junior leads the Huskies and is eighth in the Big East in rebounding with a 7.0 average.

"That's 19 players (on the first, second, third and honorable mention teams) in the league that were better in the league than Jessica Moore. I find that hard to believe," Auriemma said. "That's why everybody's entitled to their opinion. But I don't know that there's 19 players in the league better than Jessica Moore."

West Virginia picked up two awards at the banquet, winning Coach of the Year in
Mike Carey
and Freshman of the Year in guard
Meg Bulger
. Notre Dame guard
Megan Duffy
earned Most Improved Player, St. John's guard
Sherri Brown
won the Sportsmanship Award and Villanova forward Courtney Mix was voted Big East Scholar-Athlete.